African Journal of Pedagogy and Curriculum, 2026
In sub-Saharan Africa, 89% of children cannot read a simple text with comprehension by age 10, an... more In sub-Saharan Africa, 89% of children cannot read a simple text with comprehension by age 10, and most receive instruction in colonial languages-English, French, or Portuguese-rather than their mother tongues. This paper investigates whether Mother-Tongue Instruction (MTI) measurably improves Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) achievement and reduces school dropout. Using a six-year longitudinal quasi-experimental design across six sub-Saharan African countries-Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Senegal-the study tracks 4,500 primary school students (2,226 in the MTI cohort; 2,274 in the control group) and 330 teachers from 2018 to 2023. Outcomes include oral reading fluency (ORF) measured in correct words per minute (cwpm), science comprehension scores (%), annual school dropout rates (%), and teacher pedagogical confidence assessed on a validated 100-point scale. Data were drawn from Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) protocols, school administrative registers, and the Teacher MTI Pedagogical Confidence Scale (TMPCS). Analysis employed fixedeffects panel regression, with mediation analysis to assess the reading-to-science pathway. By 2023, MTI students reached a mean oral reading fluency of 61.3 cwpm, compared with 29.6 cwpm in control schools (d = 1.64). Science comprehension scores in MTI schools rose from a mean of 37.5% to 64.6% over the study period-a gain of 27.1 percentage points-substantially above the marginal improvement in control schools. Annual dropout rates in MTI schools fell from 30.1% to 13.9%, while in control schools they remained essentially stable, at 29.2% to 26.2%. Teacher confidence improved by a mean of 31.8 points on the TMPCS (82.4% gain), with Senegal and Zambia recording the largest relative increases. Mediation analysis found that 47% of the MTI effect on science comprehension was mediated by gains in reading fluency. These findings are situated within published evidence from the PRIMR Initiative in Kenya (Piper et al., 2016), the Ethiopian mother-tongue reform (Seid, 2016), and the PASEC 2019 assessment (PASEC, 2020), and carry direct implications for language-in-education policy, STEM curriculum design, and teacher education reform across the continent.
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Papers by philiph saina